Cookies and Company was never part of Chante Caines’s plan.

In 2017, eight months pregnant with her second child and working a job she didn’t enjoy, she noticed decorated sugar cookies becoming increasingly popular.

When the owner of a Bermuda bakery offered a class teaching people how to make them, Ms Caines convinced her mother to join her. She made cookies for her own baby shower, posted them online and something unexpected happened.

“People were asking me for them. It turned into a business. There was no plan.”

Nearly a decade later, Cookies and Company has evolved into a business built around handmade, bakery-style cookies, unusual flavours and Ms Caines’s seemingly constant need to create.

“We offer bespoke handmade cookies with creative, unique flavours, things that are inspired by our local environment but aren't readily available in bakeries in Bermuda.”

Customisation is also a significant part of the business, with Ms Caines working with clients to create products specifically for their events.

For a recent baby shower with a pink lemonade theme, for example, she developed cookies around the concept.

“I’m going to create cookies that you can’t get anywhere else. The colour, the flavour, the quality ingredients.”

Her ideas often begin with something she wants but cannot find.

“I’m putting the love into it, putting the research into it, the effort into something that I want to consume with all my senses. I want other people to feel that, to see that, to taste that.”

Creativity has always been part of Ms Caines’s life. In high school, it took the form of different kinds of art. Today, it is expressed through sweets and plenty of DIY projects around her home.

“My brain is very much not typical, not boring. It’s finding that sweet spot, those things that fire you up to create moments in life you enjoy.”

Despite all the experimentation that has followed, her favourite creation remains the one that started everything.

“My signature vanilla bean decorated sugar cookie is my favourite. The OG product I started with. That’s the one I will always be proud of.”

Building Cookies and Company alongside motherhood and a full-time job means fitting the business into whatever space is available.

“A lot of late evenings or all-nighters. You fit it in where you can.”

Some days that means handling business between everything else on her schedule. What she refuses to squeeze out of the process, however, is the creativity that made her start in the first place.

“The biggest thing I’ve learnt is to stay true to my art and my vision. To not lose or negotiate my creative process in the process of running a business. That keeps things authentic to me and my brand.”

She isn't interested in simply reproducing what other businesses are doing or making something because it might sell.

“I’m not going to do it if it doesn’t feel right to me. It’s not about money. I’m only going to put out what I love and enjoy and hopefully people are receptive.”

So far, they have been.

And Ms Caines is already thinking about the next evolution of Cookies and Company, although she isn't revealing everything just yet.

“We have a few big surprises in store for the fall and 2027. I want to dabble into retail.”